With all the "nickel & dime" talk, is it possible to spend $0?

I'll preface by stating I've been on 11 Disney cruises & 1 Royal Caribbean.

Hubby & I are seriously looking at jumping on the Getaway in September kinda last minute. I was thinking we'd grab the semi-free (:p) UBP to offset our usual carrying booze onboard w/Disney. I would prepay the DSC/gratuities.

I read so much about all the upcharge things. We aren't big foodies. We don't gamble. I can't imagine I'd do much shopping onboard. May buy a picture or 2 to mark the occasion. Generally our expenses come from what we spend in ports. All that said, would it be realistic to think we wouldn't spend a whole boat-load of $$ onboard?

I read a thread once on a different website among Disney cruise fans asking what's the lowest onboard balance everyone had closed out at. How about NCL? All you regulars out there, do you end a cruise with a low onboard balance??? Is it realistic to think we could do a whole week cruise as described without a ton of bleeding from our wallets in onboard "nickel & dime-ing"?

Thanks muchly.

If you have UBP, don't tip extra in bars (on the receipt), prepay DSC, stay out of speciality dining (and non-breakfast room service) and do not purchase anything onboard, there is no reason why you wouldn't have zero balance after the cruise.

Exactly as Demonyte said, your bill could be absolutely zero.

If you have UBP, don't tip extra in bars (on the receipt), prepay DSC, stay out of speciality dining and do not purchase anything onboard, there is no reason why you wouldn't have zero balance after the cruise.

Pretty much this - and if you're not a heavy dinker of alcoholic beverages but like soda / bottle water/ juice instead, you can bring as much those as you want in checked or carry-on.

Yeah not hard to do even without any promos / packages.

My lowest amount ever was $18. I went to La Cucina for $15 and left a $3 tip. That was it! If I hadn't done that it would have been $0. But I love their salmon with white beans.

Thanks all! I appreciate your responses!

So we can carry bottled water onboard??? If so, PERFECT! We love the convenience of bottled water. Hubby drinks maybe 1 soda a day at home but doesn't have to. I do not drink soda at all.

We typically drink alcohol on cruises...varying amounts, really. When we paid for the adult beverage package on Royal we drank like fishes. We've done the same on Disney a few times (then cringed at our final bar tally even after all we carried onboard). But on our recent Panama Canal voyage we drank very very little. It's a toss-up, really, but with our largest ever onboard account balance to date being mostly bar tabs I figured going with the UBP would be wisest.

The dining is all new to us either way and with so many inclusive options I think we can be happy just exploring those.

Are there a ton of for-fee activities I'm not aware of?

My last cruise on The Getaway this past June I spend $80 plus the $250 for a Future Cruise Reward, that is it.

Thanks all! I appreciate your responses!

 

So we can carry bottled water onboard??? If so, PERFECT! We love the convenience of bottled water. Hubby drinks maybe 1 soda a day at home but doesn't have to. I do not drink soda at all.

 

We typically drink alcohol on cruises...varying amounts, really. When we paid for the adult beverage package on Royal we drank like fishes. We've done the same on Disney a few times (then cringed at our final bar tally even after all we carried onboard). But on our recent Panama Canal voyage we drank very very little. It's a toss-up, really, but with our largest ever onboard account balance to date being mostly bar tabs I figured going with the UBP would be wisest.

 

The dining is all new to us either way and with so many inclusive options I think we can be happy just exploring those.

 

Are there a ton of for-fee activities I'm not aware of?

Other than the usual bingo, deal and no deal, drink tastings, Illusionarium show, casino, Carlo bake shop, Atrium cafe, specialty restaurants and sales at the Tradewinds / shopping - not much to spend on NCL.

On our first cruise on the Breakaway we only spent "extra" money on souvenirs my daughter "had to have" and some pictures that she "had to have". The cost was minimal. If we were without kids, it would have been zero. We do not drink and we brought water on board with us. There is no need to spend extra unless you want too and our cruise experience was not diminished in any way. We had a wonderful time!! This not including shore excursions but that cost would be the same on any cruise line.

Simple answer: except for DSC which all lines have, the answer is YES

Are there a ton of for-fee activities I'm not aware of?

Almost all of the activities listed in the daily program are free. Those that are require an extra charge are indicated, so if you look up the dailies for the Getaway you should get a pretty good idea of what is available.

On our last cruise our final bill included $2.50 for local sales tax on drinks we ordered under the UBP before leaving Boston harbor. That may be an unexpected and unwelcome charge for some, but I wouldn't consider it "nickel and diming" by NCL.

Cruisers like my wife and I are likely why we have all the extra fees! Literally the only thing we purchase on board is a spa pass and the little cruise ship ornament and that is it. Never a cent anywhere else on any of the cruises we have done.

As for your ports do lots of research about the ports..starting with good ol' reliable Cruise Critic ports of call sections, lots of YouTube videos and TripAdvisor/Google and you never need to purchase a ship sponsored excursion.

I disagree with all the "nickel and diming" talk as of late. It's a business first and foremost and must turn a profit. Those new builds will not pay for themselves. And NCL never pushes the for fee options on the passengers. They simply put it out there, it is the choice of the cruiser to either accept or deny the offerings. It's about options and the free options are perfectly fine for us. Now when they stop offering free water...I'm outta there!

It's your vacation, make it what you want it to be...it's still FreeStyle!

I'll preface by stating I've been on 11 Disney cruises & 1 Royal Caribbean.

 

 

 

Hubby & I are seriously looking at jumping on the Getaway in September kinda last minute. I was thinking we'd grab the semi-free (:p) UBP to offset our usual carrying booze onboard w/Disney. I would prepay the DSC/gratuities.

 

 

 

I read so much about all the upcharge things. We aren't big foodies. We don't gamble. I can't imagine I'd do much shopping onboard. May buy a picture or 2 to mark the occasion. Generally our expenses come from what we spend in ports. All that said, would it be realistic to think we wouldn't spend a whole boat-load of $$ onboard?

 

 

 

I read a thread once on a different website among Disney cruise fans asking what's the lowest onboard balance everyone had closed out at. How about NCL? All you regulars out there, do you end a cruise with a low onboard balance??? Is it realistic to think we could do a whole week cruise as described without a ton of bleeding from our wallets in onboard "nickel & dime-ing"?

 

 

 

Thanks muchly.

This post is the perfect example of the exact demo that NCL no longer wants on there fleet. They want DINKS and millennials.

They want those who SPEND. And there campaigning for it aggressively.

This post is the perfect example of the exact demo that NCL no longer wants on there fleet. They want DINKS and millennials.

 

They want those who SPEND. And there campaigning for it aggressively.

Not sure if it's true or not but our family would fit this description. DH and I have a bill at or close to $0 most of the time (not counting the DSC). Some of our adult kids are big spenders though, especially those that especially enjoy spa treatments and the casino.

Three out of the four cruises we have actually left with money on the account that was onboard credit offer for booking as well as carnival easy saver credit. So it is definitely possible.

Sure it's possible. My DH & I usually stick with the free dining options & are light drinkers. I've gone to the free stretch & Zumba classes & we love the free entertainment & activities.

I would buy a specialty coffee card & did have a cannoli at Carlo's on our Breakaway cruise. The A la Carte dining appeals to me because I'm fond of some of the dishes I've had & would like to try some others, but not enough to justify the extra cost most of the time.

I have non-refundable shipboard credit on out next & am trying to figure out what we can buy to use it up.

Someone already mentioned this but keep in mind when in port every drink is taxed. If you stay on the ship and just drink those taxes will add up.

Someone already mentioned this but keep in mind when in port every drink is taxed. If you stay on the ship and just drink those taxes will add up.

That all depends on what port you are at.

Not sure if it's true or not but our family would fit this description. DH and I have a bill at or close to $0 most of the time (not counting the DSC). Some of our adult kids are big spenders though, especially those that especially enjoy spa treatments and the casino.

We fit this bill to the "T" we do not drink alcohol, really don't gamble. And if it was not for the free UDP. We would maybe eat in the MDR or Buffet instead of a extra fee restaurant.

We also have trouble spending $$ onboard. Our first few cruises we had no OBC and most of our tab was for shore excursions.

On our last cruise we had 350 in OBC and did a little more splurging ate out more, drank a bit more - we also had to tip the suite staff and we had some shore excursions as well. (actually we prepaid them so they were not on the end of cruise tab). I think after all was said and done we owed 1 or 200.00 for the three of us.

On our upcoming cruise there will again be three of us in a suite - we all have the UBP, UDC, and 300 OBC - considering our last cruise together we barely spent the OBC, and what we did spend will now be covered buy the two packages - perhaps the OBC will go to the suite staff.

One tip we learned was to buy a bottle of wine - they will re-cork it and have it available in any restaurant onboard it is cheaper than buying it by the glass as you get more glasses for less $$. We did this on our last cruise and it worked great - the bottle lasted the three of us for two meals (we only have one glass/meal).

My biggest expense is internet fees, because I've done a couple of "Live From" threads during my cruises, and I want to upload what I've written during the trip. If I don't do that, it's really not much. Got the UBP this time, might do an SDP this time around (or just do one or two specialty restaurants). I'm guessing my bill will be about $200 for me alone (not including hubby). However, I could get it to zero, if I wanted. (We prepaid DSC.)

--Michael

If you are wine drinkers, you can bring on unlimited wine that you declare upon boarding and pay a $15 corkage fee per normal size bottle. Keep in cabin if you want or use at a restaurant as the above poster mentioned.

Drinks are usually our biggest expense, and we like the various tastings @ $15 per person. A free drinks package ( or almost ) with the booking will save us a few hundred on our tab. And since we have that, I doubt we will purchase any tastings.

The Illusionarium Dinner show is pretty much the only entertainment with a fee and it is well worth it. Some of the dinner packages include this show with a small up charge. We think a few nights of Specialty dining ( usually @ 3 nights ) really enhances our cruise. In the past, we have just paid the cover charges as we go rather than buy the previous 7 day only packages. Cagneys, LeBistro and Moderno are favorites. But with the SDP you can now buy a minimum of 3 nights up to 7. Much more reasonable for us and we will probably buy a 3 or 4 night SDP now, ( about $70 pp ) especially since some of the venues are now a la carte otherwise. You can have a few nights of upgraded atmosphere and food. We think it is well worth the price.

My last Dawn cruise, my final bill was less than $3.00. I make use of every free thing that is available to me.

This post is the perfect example of the exact demo that NCL no longer wants on there fleet. They want DINKS and millennials.

 

They want those who SPEND. And there campaigning for it aggressively.

I definitely can see that. However, with hubby's hours being slimmed down this year (read: no OT) & a kid about to start college the budget isn't allowing us as much spending freedom at the moment. Just think, a few short (albeit expensive) years & we'll be empty-nesters. We're wanting to sample other lines now. I hit platinum with Disney in 3 years time w/5 of those in suites. There's definitely money here to be had. :cool: Our 17 yro wants to sail back-to-back on the Escape next spring for his graduation trip (we homeschool). I see a lean September cruise as a sampling for our family. We're shoe-horning an extra trip in for the year (maybe). The big spending is yet to come. NCL would be terribly short-sighted to write off people that way. Ya know? I'm definitely trying to get a feel for NCL's business model. I'm making a cautious approach. :D